Montana or Bust

What day is it?  Time?  Month?  Time is flying by so quickly I'm having a hard time keeping track of everything.

Brent and I took a mini-road trip last weekend.  I took one day off to make it an extended weekend.  Sunday afternoon we took off for Bozeman, Montana.  We made it to Timber Creek before we called it a night and pitched camp at the Spring Creek Campground about midnight.  The sprinklers kicking on around 7 startled us awake.  We reluctantly got up and on our way.

First stop was the Lumberjack Bar 'N Grill for breakfast.  It was recommended by our campground host so we figured we would take a chance on it.  It was pretty delicious.  I had a deep fried cinnamon roll and hashbrowns and Brent had some huge burrito smothered in green chili.  I highly recommend the cinnamon roll - it was delicious!!!

We then stopped at the Livingston Depot Museum where we learned random facts about the railroad, Livingston, and rail tourism to Yellowstone!  Good times.

After Livingston, we made it to our destination of Bozeman.  We enjoyed the obligatory Harley Davidson shop stop and picked up a double shot glass for the collection.  We then headed to downtown Bozeman to shop and eat.  Bozeman is a lot like downtown Ft. Collins shopping.  Lots of shops and restaurants.  We had a late lunch at the MacKenzie River Pizza Company, which was a great choice.  If you're ever in Bozeman, try the Hot Hawaiian pizza.  We were so hungry by late afternoon, we demolished the whole pizza.

Montana doesn't have any sales tax!  So I didn't feel guilty spending $20 on a shutter remote for my camera!!  Woohoo - a whole new world of possibilities folks.  Self portraits here I come!  Not really, but I am pretty excited about my remote!!  And it worked...

First remote shot... and view of the tent lawn at Bear Canyon Campground.

The second night we pitched our tent at the Bear Canyon Campground.  For $20, it was an okay setup.  Brent and I were pretty tired from our lack of sleep the night before so we just chilled out and hit the sleeping bags earlier, which payed off!

With almost ten hours of sleep, we headed south for a fun filled day in Yellowstone National Park!!  I was super excited to go to Yellowstone.  I'd never been to Yellowstone and the closest I ever got was a Road Closed sign back in January.  Brent went to Yellowstone back when he was really young and didn't really remember much about that visit so it was kind of a new experience for him too.

Just like every National Park - the "wild" animals cause traffic jams.

 We entered through one of the popular entrances with the Roosevelt Arch.  There was a steady stream of traffic into the park but once people started getting distracted by the attractions, road traffic thinned out.

Roosevelt Arch

Now I can actually use my Yellowstone National Park scrapbook paper I bought years ago!!

We chose to stop at the Gibbons Falls which didn't have much of a traffic jam!  It was beautiful!  Hard to believe the walkway and parking lot was built so long ago.  Brent and I always find that stuff fascinating and try to determine how much it would cost today.  We're always in a agreement that it would cost more, take longer, and not be of the same quality if it were built today.

We then made tracks towards Old Faithful.  We ate lunch in one of the many National Park buildings.  Tons of shopping and lots of people!  It was quite chaotic.  We then wandered around some of the springs and hot spots while waiting for the next eruption of Old Faithful.  Right on schedule at 4:18 pm the geyser spewed it's 4,000-8,000 gallons of water!!  It was pretty cool to see!  We were on the eastern side (I think) and received I nice spritzing thanks to wind factor.

After Old Faithful we headed east around Yellowstone Lake towards Cody.  Yellowstone Lake was huge!!  And so pretty.

We had pretty good timing and got out of the park and into Cody as the sun was starting to set.  After a few days of camping, I was super excited to see our hotel!!  A soak in the in-room jacuzzi and hot shower was just what I needed to wipe the grime away.  And the king bed was perfect for sleeping-in!  It was 10:30 the next morning by the time we start stirring.

Brent took the long way home, as usual.  So we cut north through Shell Canyon from Greybull to Sheridan.  It's amazing how much the landscape can change in Wyoming.

From Sheridan we headed south to Casper to visit some of Brent's friends and then make the long trek back home to Fort Fun.  We got to see a grass fire outside of Casper.  And a double rainbow.  And then the sunset on the outskirts of a raging storm over Chugwater.  It was eerie driving into a complete red!!  The photo just doesn't do it justice!

And that's a wrap!  I took a ton of photos and will have lots of scrapbooking ahead of me!  I can't wait to go back to Yellowstone some day!!  There was so much more to explore and I want to see it all.